Stroke Rehabilitation Research

The Stroke Research Laboratory is part of Kessler Foundation Research Center, a division of Kessler Foundation. Kessler Foundation is a non-profit public charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with physical and cognitive disabilities through research, education, employment, and community integration. Kessler Foundation Research Center is affiliated with UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School and Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation.

There are more than 7 million stroke survivors in the nation. The Stroke Lab strives to improve the quality of life for stroke survivors by finding treatments for common disabilities caused by stroke. For many individuals, disabilities after stroke often go unnoticed. Dr. Anna Barrett, M.D., Director of Stroke Research at Kessler Foundation conducts presentations around the world explaining the importance of having an interdisciplinary team of medical professionals follow the patient to be able to quickly identify these hidden disabilities.

The Stroke Research Lab looks for effective techniques to treat such hidden disabilities, including aphasia and spatial neglect. Aphasia is a communication disorder in which the brain has difficulty processing language. In other words, individuals know what they want to say but can’t find the words needed to express their thoughts. Intelligence, however, is not affected.

As a result of the difficulty communicating, individuals with aphasia often become withdrawn and isolated from their loved ones and society. To treat this problem, Dr. Barrett and her research team are investigating handheld communication devices. Kessler Foundation's scientists have seen families come back together as a result of improved communication.

Spatial neglect, in which some stroke survivors have difficulty navigating in 3-dimensional space, is another common effect of stroke. Objects may not be seen or may appear to be on the opposite side. This causes auto accidents, cooking injuries, and inadequate personal hygiene.

Kessler Foundation's Stroke Lab is investigating the effect of prism goggles on treating spatial neglect and identifying what patients would benefit from this therapy. Prism goggles are designed to train the brain to bring the field of vision back to center by forcing the brain to see objects on the neglected side. Research participants have become more independent in their daily lives and had fewer accidents as a result of this therapy.

By addressing these hidden disabilities, the Stroke Lab is giving hope to individuals who are often ignored. If they couldn't communicate, they were unable to express how they felt. Aphasia is often mistaken for depression or being forgetful or anti-social. People with spatial neglect are often thought of as just being clumsy. Kessler Foundation's Stroke Lab is raising awareness of the need to properly identify and treat these disabilities to improve quality of life for stroke survivors and their families and decrease the likelihood of furthering injury by avoiding injury.

The Stroke Lab also frequently collaborates with the Foundation's Human Performance & Engineering Lab to investigate mobility impairments caused by stroke. After a stroke, individuals may experience weakness or paralysis in their extremities. Foot drop, for example, is when the foot doesn't flex upright when walking, causing it to drag on the ground. This increases the rate of trips and falls, which can further the disability. To treat foot drop, researchers are examining the effects of using traditional braces versus devices that provide electrical stimulation. The goal is to help people walk more effectively to increase independence and improve quality of life.

Foundation scientists are continually seeking to discover what treatments work for some participants and not others and the reason. By identifying what type of individuals would benefit from a particular therapy, the treatment process could be accelerated and people would have better outcomes in rehabilitation.